Jury convicts man, 24, in SF officer's death

SAN FRANCISCO 
A San Francisco jury has convicted a 24-year-old man of first-degree murder in the death of a police officer who was killed when his cruiser was hit by a stolen van fleeing a robbery scene and a high-speed police pursuit.

District Attorney Kamala Harris said jurors deliberated for less than two days before finding Steven Petrilli criminally responsible for the July 2006 death of Officer Nick Birco.

Petrilli, then a 19 year old Hayward resident, was the driver of the van that hit the 39-year-old Birco's police car, one of three that were chasing the vehicle after a man was robbed and assaulted at a San Francisco bus stop.

He faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole.